Consistent with its active role in contributing to the United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKO), Indonesia has “elevated its game” by promoting training, capacity building and women’s empowerment, especially in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia remains by far the biggest contributor to PKO among ASEAN countries according to UN data. It is also home to Southeast Asia’s biggest peacekeeping training center.

Pursuing its goal of “Investing in Peace”, Indonesian carved its legacy in building international peace during its presidency of the United Nations Security Council last year by highlighting two points: bringing forth the agenda of women, peace and security (WPS) in UN peacekeeping missions and empowering regional action through partnership. This year, Indonesia is committed to furthering renewed global commitment through Action for Peacekeeping (A4P), as discussed in a webinar on women in peacekeeping it cohosted with Bangladesh in May.

The A4P initiative, launched in 2018, aims to “renew mutual political commitment to peacekeeping operations” through the eight priorities of: advancing political solutions to conflict; furthering the WPS agenda; strengthening protection provided by PKO; improving safety and security for peacekeepers; supporting effective performance and accountability; increasing the impacts of PKO in sustaining peace; improving partnerships; and strengthening the conduct of peacekeepers and PKO.

Renewed priorities for 2021-2023 were agreed in the new Action for Peacekeeping Plus (A4P+), as expressed in the UN Secretary-General’s message to mark the initiative’s third year of implementation.

A4P+ will work on the importance of quality over quantity in sectors of strategy, integration, peacekeepers and communications. These priorities have resonated with Indonesia’s continued efforts in putting forth gender-balanced peacekeeping operations and its implementation in the ASEAN region.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Jakarta is currently assessing Indonesia’s implementation of the A4P goals. The country’s significant modalities, including its moderate Muslim-majority population that supports women’s participation in peacekeeping missions, its capacity to influence and speak on behalf of ASEAN through the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, and its rich experience in dealing with local, national and regional conflicts, will help Indonesia to fulfill its commitments in both A4P and A4P+.

However, as a middle power and developing nation with budgetary, equipment and human resource constraints, it would be wise for Indonesia to focus its strategy to excel in two main priorities: WPS and empowering the regional collective through partnership.

First, on WPS, the implementation of women’s participation in PKO has been proven by the country's sending a total of 570 women peacekeepers since 1999, out of a total of 39,875 Indonesian peacekeepers since 1957. According to a United Nations University article, women peacekeepers are said to have an advantage in terms of intelligence-gathering abilities, sociocultural approaches, humanitarian services and handling gender-sensitive as well as child protection issues.

Since PKO mandates include protecting local civilians, it is important to gather information on the best ways to provide protection while respecting local cultures and wisdoms, which is expedited by the participation of women in Indonesia’s peacekeeping mission. Leveling up, representation should be accompanied by well-trained and well-equipped personnel. Indonesia should also support the creation of a global network of women peacekeepers to enable more women to participate not only in peacekeeping operations, but also in increasingly strategic roles.

Second, on partnership, Southeast Asian countries have much experience with conflicts and political uprisings, such as Indonesia with Aceh, but Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia also have their share of dealing with crises. Additionally, although they may not be as big as Indonesia, the data shows that these countries also provide troops and police to UN peacekeeping missions.

Taking these into consideration, the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus Experts’ Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations (ADMM-Plus) can discuss ways to solidify the regional grouping’s approach toward its contribution to UN peacekeeping missions. Perhaps there is merit in intensifying collaborative partnerships to open a possibility for member states to be deployed under the ASEAN banner.

Indonesia should also raise awareness for WPS so the region can be pushed to increase the number of female peacekeepers it deploys despite the various policies that constrain such action, including national regulations supporting or hampering women working in the security sector, the existing number of women working in this sector and the demand from the host countries of PKO.

Weighing its modalities, Indonesia is on the right track toward realizing its A4P goals but going forward, the country needs to maintain its work.

First, to maintain engagement, Indonesia needs to highlight the importance of Southeast Asian countries’ contribution and commitment to PKO through bilateral dialogues as well as regional platforms such as the ADMM-Plus. This can be done through joint efforts to increase the quality of peacekeeper training programs by offering to conduct such programs at the Sentul peacekeeping training center.

Second is to empower female peacekeepers on a regional scale. This can be done through the creation of a Southeast Asian female peacekeepers network to allow sharing of lessons learned, peer support and better pre-deployment training, mentoring and resource sharing for women in peace and security. The homework for this is how to maintain retention and promote female peacekeepers to gain better and more strategic roles in peacekeeping missions and the UN Secretariat.

Third, Indonesia needs to build a global network to promote ASEAN peacekeepers so that one day, they can be accepted by host countries as part of the greater UN PKO deployment. To do this, Indonesia must overcome the challenge by addressing subregional instabilities to build its reputation as a respected pioneer of global peace and stability.

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Fitriani is an international relations researcher at CSIS Jakarta; Ruth Latreia is in her final year of studies at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, West Java.